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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPretty Good Advice is a reenvisioning of what fast food can be \u2014 seasonal, fresh and locally grown. The fast-casual restaurant is fueled by Matt McNamara\u2019s farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains. McNamara is best known for co-founding Sons & Daughters in San Francisco, which received a Michelin star in 2012. He originally started his 83-acre farm in 2013 to grow ingredients for Sons & Daughters but left the restaurant in 2017 to live on the farm with his family.A few years later, he opened the first Pretty Good Advice location in Soquel, which he followed with a second location in downtown Santa Cruz. Now, he\u2019s bringing the restaurant\u2019s fresh, vegetarian-leaning sandwiches, burgers and fries north, to downtown San Jose, meaning Bay Area residents will no longer need to make the trek down Highway 17 to enjoy his creations. The location at 125 Paseo de Antonio opens Wednesday, with starting hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.McNamara stepped away from fine dining because he wanted to makes his food accessible to more people, he told SFGATE in a recent interview. \u201cMy objective is not to charge you 300 bucks to sit down,\u201d he said. \u201cMy objective is that this fruit should be consumed by the whole community.\u201d He also felt that he couldn\u2019t take full advantage of his farm-to-table pipeline. \u201cWe produce massive amounts of fruits and vegetables \u2014 fine dining uses very little food,\u201d McNamara explained. \u201cWe were sold out every night, but you\u2019re sold out with like 50 people.\u201d At Pretty Good Advice, he serves up to 800 people on a Saturday. While fine dining restaurants don\u2019t tend to have many regular customers, McNamara is proud to share that 70% of his customers at Pretty Good Advice return regularly throughout the week. It\u2019s easy to see why people return so often \u2014 the menu is constantly featuring exciting new creations. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s citrus season,\u201d McNamara said. \u201cThere\u2019s probably 600 citrus trees and about 20 varieties that are ripe.\u201d The current menu incorporates fruity, zesty flavors into salads, soups, drinks and desserts. Preserved Meyer lemons are transformed into a creamy dressing for a Brussels sprouts salad. Makrut limes are infused into a curried carrot soup. For dessert, pot de cr\u00e8me is topped with powerfully fragrant candied yuzu. My favorite dish was the hummus topped with pomegranate chermoula sauce and served with house-made pita. I also loved the OG Spicy Boy breakfast sandwich, which features a fried egg, roasted jalape\u00f1os and caramelized onion.The menu changes with the seasons as McNamara plants seeds with dishes already in mind, like an eggplant sandwich. \u201cI know that if I plant more than five rows of eggplants, I can\u2019t gobble it up. But San Jose is opening, so maybe I\u2019ll plant more than five this year.\u201dIn the summer, he harvests stone fruits, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and berries. In the fall, he plucks pomegranates, pineapple guavas, apples and pears. He enjoys growing lesser-known fruits like pink blueberries, plum cherries, rangpur limes and those pineapple guavas.\u201cI\u2019m really good at utilizing what I have and what\u2019s coming,\u201d he said \u201cSo I think that\u2019s the challenge of it, that\u2019s what\u2019s really fun.\u201d The chef\u2019s favorite dishes unite elements from multiple seasons like his persimmon salad with a plum jam-black pepper vinaigrette.McNamara makes the most of not only the seasons but also byproducts and food waste. \u201cWhat I\u2019m most proud of is developing a menu that\u2019s a cycle,\u201d he said. The 300 chickens on his farm feed on food scraps and, in turn, fertilize the soil. They also provide the eggs for the popular breakfast sandwiches, which always feature a giant rectangular hash brown. He also buys fruit that falls from trees at other farms and turns it into jam. He sees it as a win-win, since he gets a good deal and prevents that fruit from going to waste. Even the trees that fall on his property are turned into charcoal and used to smoke dishes.McNamara has learned over the years how much to plant to avoid overproducing, but sometimes he still gets more than he knows what to do with. \u201cIt\u2019s like a \u2018Top Chef\u2019 challenge,\u201d McNamara said. \u201cHere\u2019s 600 pounds of this. What are you going to do with it?\u201d When he was getting crushed by persimmons, he made a persimmon lemonade to get through thousands of pounds of the fruit. He also preserves strawberries and berries to craft peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids menu. \u201cI\u2019m a pretty accomplished chef, and I say I can farm, but I wouldn\u2019t call myself either of them,\u201d McNamara said. \u201cI\u2019m like this weird guy in between that says, \u2018Dump it on me, and I\u2019ll create this nice dish for the community.\u2019\u201d During extra-bountiful harvests, he shares his produce with other Santa Cruz County businesses, like Fruition Brewing and Kitchen, Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, and Bookie\u2019s Pizza.McNamara grew up in Cupertino and chose San Jose as Pretty Good Advice\u2019s first step into the Bay Area because he\u2019s a fan of the city\u2019s food scene. He also recognizes that the region is home to many vegetarians and vegans who can appreciate good food. He hopes to open more locations in the future. For now, he continues to find ways to push the restaurant forward. Recently, he recruited his brother-in-law to start making some of the bread for the restaurant.\u201cThis is a very honest product, and I think any community would really appreciate having it,\u201d McNamara said. Pretty Good Advice, 125 Paseo de Antonio, San Jose. Open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSANTA CRUZ, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Pretty Good Advice is a reenvisioning of what fast food can be \u2014 seasonal, fresh and locally grown. The fast-casual restaurant is fueled by Matt McNamara\u2019s farm in the Santa Cruz<\/a> Mountains. McNamara is best known for co-founding Sons & Daughters<\/a> in San Francisco, which received a Michelin star in 2012. <\/p>\n He originally started his 83-acre farm in 2013 to grow ingredients for Sons & Daughters but left the restaurant in 2017 to live on the farm with his family.<\/p>\n